From biofuel to fossil fuel

Published
6:22 pm CDT, Friday, August 8, 2014

An old building that was used by HL&P power plant, on the property now owned Biofuels Power Corp. Tuesday August 5, 2014 at 12100 Hiram Clarke Road in Houston, TX. Biofuels is a Houston company that is hoping to convert natural gas into oil. less

An old building that was used by HL&P power plant, on the property now owned Biofuels Power Corp. Tuesday August 5, 2014 at 12100 Hiram Clarke Road in Houston, TX. Biofuels is a Houston company that is hoping ... more

Photo: Billy Smith II, Chronicle

Photo: Billy Smith II, Chronicle

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An old building that was used by HL&P power plant, on the property now owned Biofuels Power Corp. Tuesday August 5, 2014 at 12100 Hiram Clarke Road in Houston, TX. Biofuels is a Houston company that is hoping to convert natural gas into oil. less

An old building that was used by HL&P power plant, on the property now owned Biofuels Power Corp. Tuesday August 5, 2014 at 12100 Hiram Clarke Road in Houston, TX. Biofuels is a Houston company that is hoping ... more

Photo: Billy Smith II, Chronicle

From biofuel to fossil fuel

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A Texas company is switching gears away from biofuel production to tap into the fossil fuel boom driven by shale technology. Biofuels Power Corp. plans to take this former power plant in the Houston area and transform it into a small-scale gas-to-liquids plant. Biofuels says the plant, which it calls the first of its kind in the U.S., is a key step in the company's quest to build several small portable plants that can be installed even at remote oil patches. The idea is to capture and convert the natural gas that often is stranded at the well site because of a lack of either pipeline infrastructure or processing capability. But first they've got to show that such small-scale operations are commercially viable.
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